Excellence is … caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, and dreaming more than others think is practical. This is a good definition of excellence by Winston Churchill, isn’t it? Certainly worked for selecting the social media experts I recommend. In my career of 45+ years, I have experienced many types of jobs, many of them in the field of marketing, and customer service. Innovation and business growth. I have learned much from the Zappos media checklist and many media marketing secrets.
With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering. Zappos media checklist has been leading the charge.
In all of these, I found that it was critical for continuous learning and adapting to change. This is particularly true for the field of social media, where things change with the speed of the internet.
No shock in this statement – I’m a big fan of blogs and blogging as a core marketing, content, and SEO practice.
Related: An Update to Starbucks Creative Ideas and Innovation
Did you know the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years? EVERY TWO YEARS? The top 10 jobs that were in demand in 2013 didn’t exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that don’t yet exist. All this in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Scary, isn’t it?
For students starting a 4 year technical or college degree, one-half of what they will learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. We are clearly living in exponential times, aren’t we?
For more background see Shift Happens 2013.
So we hope you note and appreciate the amount of change going on in the world and the rate of change acceleration. The implication of the rapidity of change means everything we learn has an extremely short shelf life. Big implications here for continuous learning in any field, yes?
Here is an interesting quote that sheds a good light on how to stay up to speed on social media:
I just sit in my office and read all day.
– Warren Buffett
Well maybe not all day, but reading for continuous learning is a must, isn’t it? To increase your continuous learning, what skill would you choose? We would choose to increase learning by improving reading skills.
Reading … this is how Warren Buffett, one of the most successful people in the business world, describes his day. Sitting. Reading. He advises everyone to read more, and that’s certainly a goal we can all get behind.
So where do we find what to read? And what are we to do with all that information once we have it?
I subscribe to many blogs, read blogs daily, and generally find that when I search for things, blog posts offer the most useful information and new ideas. I read many different types of blogs – some for inspiration, some for thought leadership, and still some for personal growth from the Zappos media checklist.
I frequently get asked about resources I turn to and, for today, here they are. I placed them into a handful of categories, but many of them could cross over into multiple categories and often do in the range of topics they weigh in on.
Most of these won’t be new to my regular readers as I reference them often, but it can be helpful to see them all in one place. Subscribe to this list and you’ll always have ready access to the best social media tips, tools, and techniques you can take action on today.
Today I will present a list of blogs that I turn to on a regular basis when I want to learn something practical and useful for social media marketing and customer service.
This list of 30 blogs isn’t the top list or ranking or any other of the link-bait kinds of lists you see out there. The blogs on this list are tools for me as I market and grow my business and attempt to expand my knowledge in an ever-changing world.
Feel free to share blogs you find useful when you need to learn how to do stuff.
Zappos media checklist … social media
Social Media Examiner – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/
Buffer – https://blog.bufferapp.com/
Razor Social – http://www.razorsocial.com/blog/
Kiss Metrics – https://blog.kissmetrics.com/
Unbounce – http://unbounce.com/blog/
QuickSprout – http://www.quicksprout.com/university/
Social media marketing tips … conversion
Kiss Metrics – https://blog.kissmetrics.com/
Unbounce – http://unbounce.com/blog/
QuickSprout – http://www.quicksprout.com/university/
Zappos media checklist … how to do social media marketing
Seth Godin Blog – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Guy Kawasaki – http://guykawasaki.com/
Digital Spark Marketing – http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/
Customer service/experience
Bill Quiseng Blog
Shep Hyken Blog
Annette Franz Blog
Video
Reel SEO – http://www.reelseo.com/
Video Brewery – http://www.videobrewery.com/blog/
Podcast
Podcast Answer Man – http://podcastanswerman.com/
Entrepreneur on Fire – http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com
SEO
MOZ – http://moz.com/
Search Engine Watch – http://searchenginewatch.com/
PPC
PPC Hero – http://www.ppchero.com/
WordStream – http://www.wordstream.com/blog
Analytics
Occam’s Razor – http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
Crazy Egg – http://blog.crazyegg.com/
Content
Content Marketing Institute – http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/blog/
Copyblogger – http://www.copyblogger.com/blog/
WordPress
WP Beginner – http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/wp-tutorials/
Yoast – https://yoast.com/
Key takeaways
So if you want to maximize your continuous learning in social media, marketing, and customer service, do lots of reading from these references. You will be amazed at how much you will learn.
Be curious and ask yourself lots of questions that you should try and answer. Never stop learning and living a full life.
Live as if today will be your last day and learn as if you will live forever.
Please share one of your continuous learning experiences on social media with this community. Have any questions or comments to add below?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on social media marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Adapting to Major Changes in the Social Media Climate
An Update to Starbucks Creative Ideas and Innovation
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.